EV battery rules likely next month

The government is likely to announce next month crucial battery safety and performance standards that are expected to play a key role in promoting electric vehicle adoption and reducing pollution, two senior government officials familiar with the development said.

- Ravi Dutta Mishra & Rituraj Baruah

The standards, prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards, would not include rules on dimensions and size of batteries, given the concerns raised by the industry that mandating dimensions would stem innovation.

"The standards have been finalized and are expected to be released next month. Certain minimum standards, called horizontal standards, have been made to ensure safety. In order to avoid substandard batteries, a certain bare minimum duration has also been fixed," one of the two officials said, requesting anonymity.

On the decision on battery dimensions, the official said: "The EV segment is fairly new in India. So, fixing the dimensions of the battery would essentially curb innovation. So, it has been decided that standards would be based only on safety and performance, not dimension."